The invention relates to a steering wheel.
To increase the comfort, various attempts have been made recently to keep vibrations away from the steering wheel of a vehicle, which occur whilst the vehicle is in operation. It is known, for example, to use inertial masses to compensate vibrations, by which the resonance frequency of the steering wheel is shifted into a non-critical range. These inertial masses can either be additional masses or suitably arranged components of, for example, gas bag restraint systems, in particular the gas generator. If additional masses are used, this leads to additional costs and to an increased weight. If components of the gas bag restraint system are used, various problems arise, such as the gas tightness of the gas generators or the transmission of reaction forces on activation of the gas bag.
The object of the invention consists in achieving a neutralizing of vibrations of the steering wheel with a small expenditure.
This is achieved in a steering wheel which comprises a rim skeleton and a rim casing, at least one vibration-damping element being provided which is arranged between the rim skeleton and the rim casing. The invention is based on the fundamental idea of neutralizing in terms of vibration technology only that part of the steering wheel for which this is absolutely necessary. This is the rim casing which comes into contact with the hands of the driver of the vehicle concerned. If the rim casing is neutralized in terms of vibration technology, vibrations of the remaining parts of the steering wheel, for example the steering wheel hub or the steering wheel spokes, are scarcely noticed. A further advantage of the construction according to the invention consists in that through the neutralizing merely of the rim casing, only a smaller vibrating mass has to be neutralized.
Advantageous developments of the invention will be apparent from the sub-claims.